What would Jesus direct?
That was the provocative question debated at a panel discussion I attended as part of the Tribeca Film Festival here in New York. On the panel were four Hollywood insiders who are also Christian: the actor Cuba Gooding Jr., the producer Ralph Winter (“X-Men”), Micheal Flaherty from Walden Media (producers of “The Chronicles of Narnia”), and Jonathan Bock, head of Grace Hill Media, a PR firm that markets mainstream movies to Christian audiences.
With an occasional “Hallelujah!” from Gooding, the panelists discussed whether Hollywood has seen the light as far as making movies of interest to Christian audiences–and whether Jesus would make dark, edgy art-house films or happy family-friendly blockbusters. Looming over the discussion were three films that the panelists invoked repeatedly: One box-office failure (“The Last Temptation of Christ“), one success (“The Passion of the Christ”), and one not-yet-released (“Da Vinci Code,” as if I needed to tell you that).
On the first: “I so laugh at Hollywood,” Gooding said. “‘The Passion of the Christ’ made a hell of a lot of money–no pun intended–and now everyone is scurrying to have the next faith-based project that goes through the roof. The audience has been there for years.”
On the second: “I think ‘The Last Temptation of Christ”s biggest sin was that it was boring,” Bock said. “The movie has to be good. It has to be a good story, it has to be good acting, it has to be good directing, it has to be good marketing.”
And on the third: “I think what they [churches] have come to believe is, if the whole world wants to talk about Jesus, then let’s be ready to have a conversation about Jesus,” Bock said. “When is the next time in pop-culture that people are going to care what really happened at the Council of Nicea?”
What emerged from all this was a consensus that, post-”Passion,” Hollywood realizes there’s a major underserved Christian audience out there. And they want those bucks. They’re just not sure how to go about doing that.
“One of the mistakes people make is they think that they can just throw in a church scene here, throw in a bit of scripture here,” Flaherty said. “They’re losing the point, that it’s all about great stories. If it doesn’t exist in the DNA of the story, you can’t just dab it on like makeup.”
But slowly, the panelists said, Hollywood is starting to focus more on the Christian market. Bock compared it to the African-American market 30 years ago: Starting with small-budget “blaxploitation” films that pulled in big bucks, studios continued to make more and bigger films geared toward African-American audiences.
Bock predicted that we’ll see that same trend in the Christian world–a phenomenon he dubbed “Godsploitation.” One test, he added, will be New Line’s “Nativity,” scheduled for a December release, which dramatizes Mary and Joseph’s lives in the year leading up to Jesus’ birth.
That’s all well and good, but the pressing question remains: What would Jesus direct?
Winter had the most specific answer: The parables, specifically, the Prodigal Son. “The story is a little dark. At the end, the older brother and the dad have some serious family therapy to go through,” he said. “Sometimes Christians want to go after movies that have happy endings, no darkness, so subtext, no fun. So I wonder if Jesus wouldn’t be directing an R-rated art film that might be playing at this festival.”
Bock thought Jesus’ films would be much more “populist” than that: “I think it would be funny, it would be poignant, it would be commercially successful.”
The real questions I was left with: Would any major studio greenlight a project from a Hollywood unknown like Jesus? And has he gotten any bankable stars attached to his project yet?
posted May 5, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Jesus would never direct an R rated movie. Everything he stood for was pure and holy. He knew no sin. People want to take their children to see wholesome movies. America is getting further and further away from that. Someone has to make a difference. We need movies that have value so our younger generation wont believe that everything is about killing and money. Contrary to popular believe IT’S NOT!>
posted May 5, 2006 at 11:42 pm
I have a script… “Dawn of the Revelation – The Omega Brotherhood”. They don’t want it… too “Christian” for the general public and too “worldly” for the Christians. Indeed, there’s no pleasing anybody! The writer is correct… Noone wants a script written by the “Son of Man”.>
posted May 6, 2006 at 10:06 pm
My favorite Christian novel of all time is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Would love to see the story on screen. It is the story of Hosea in a romance novel. This book has expressed the message of unconditional love in a way that reaches out to everyone. I have prayed and prayed that it would someday be a motion picture but it would have to be made by someone that really understands the heart of God. I know this would be one movie Jesus would direct.>
posted May 6, 2006 at 11:00 pm
Of course, I don’t know if I’m right. I agree that sometimes Jesus’ parables were dark warnings. But, in my heart, I think anything that gets people talking about Jesus and Christianity is worth looking at as a project. Jesus had no trouble answering questions from those who doubted Him, or posing questions to make a point. On the other hand, Jesus’ nature was so humble he would never have been noticed in Hollywood.>
posted May 7, 2006 at 1:54 am
i say there is to much garbage in movies today. people are searching for something, they are empty. passion of christ had people going back to church and seeking salvation , which is what jesus died for. he could not make a movie and it wouldnt be r rated. he is holy and went around teaching Gods word. he had no problems speaking and explaining. we shouldnt even put God in the this situation. he is holy .people should pick up the bible and read it , then there wouldnt be such questions about GOD who is holy and pure.>
posted May 7, 2006 at 1:59 am
I think ” JESUS CHRIST ” might director a movie on man’s disobedient ways on earth. Nothing living for ” JESUS “,but living for his gain. Living of this world,not for JESUS TEACHINGS.>
posted May 7, 2006 at 7:13 am
I for one don’t understand Hollywood. For the most part an individual has to put out nine or ten dollars for movies that for the most part today are trash. Think back to the forties whan a great movie which today would pack them in like the film “The Song of Bernadette”. Put that movie out today with the exact same dialog and the same exact musical score and Twentieth Century Fox would have a hit on there hands. They made the original movie which was one of the most inspirational films of all time. ReRelease films in the vaults like Ben Hur and The Robe. Films about inspiration and love. I saw these films years ago and I would pay the ten bucks to see them on the big screen again. We have become a society Hollywood has trained to become accustomed to fantastic special effects and vulgarity. Neither one adds an iota of class to the story line. Start putting out inspirational films again. One of the great films of all time so far as I was concerned was “The Passion of The Christ” and it wasn’t even spoken in English. Hollywood is shooting themselves in the foot when people know that if they wait three or four months they can see the film on DVD. Don’t bring out any of these class films for at least a year on DVD and people will say I’m not going to wait that long to see the movie. Hollywood will eventually go broke if they continue to do this. This is one of the big reasons movie revenue has been so low plus the fact most of the films made today are trash. Let me run a studio and the revenues would go sky high. But who am I? I have just loved great films all my life. Great films are just not made today. Films that tell us God is someone to behold. Remake a great film like Twentieth Century Fox “The Razors Edge” the one with Tyrone Power. Use the exact same dialog and the same inspirational music score and sell it as an uplifting film which it was and it would be a hit. Just the music in “The Song of Bernadette” and “The Razors Edge” were worth the price of admission. Hollywood is losing it. They spend Millions upon Millions of Dollars to make these suppossed Blockbusters that don’t sell. They give an actor like Tom Cruise a $100,000,000 and this offends people because when a studio has to give an actor that much money and the movie doesn’t sell it’s like you purchased a house for a half million dollars and it was deflated to 1/4 of a million dollars. Class movies were put out in the forties and people flocked to those films and they didn’t have to pay an actor what Tom Cruise gets for a film because frankly he’s not a great actor and by all means not worth the price.>
posted May 11, 2006 at 12:37 pm
The most moving picture I ever saw was as a teen in the 70′s and I still love it today, Jesus Christ Superstar. The music was very spiritual, and the entire production was amazing. Jesus Christ would have approved of it, Now the remake they did was dark and I didn’t like the production on the whole, I don’t think Jesus would have either. Our Lord is love, and he died for our sins because he loves us.>